CMS Pulls Back on Key Drug Pricing Proposals

May 29, 2019

By Judy Packer-Tursman

When CMS issued the final rule on Medicare Advantage and Part D drug pricing on May 16, the agency touted its policy changes as ensuring consumers get greater transparency into the cost of Part D prescription drugs and enabling MA plans to negotiate better prices for physician-administered medicines in Part C. Yet, after receiving 4,000-plus comments related to pharmacy price concessions on negotiated price, CMS held back, saying it won’t implement this policy for 2020 — or follow through on proposed exceptions to Part D protected drug classes.

Among numerous provisions, CMS’s final rule implements the statutory prohibition against gag clauses in pharmacy contracts, barring Part D plans from penalizing pharmacies that disclose a lower cash price to enrollees. But the agency decided against implementing a policy redefining negotiated price as the lowest possible, baseline payment to pharmacies.

Leerink analyst Ana Gupte sees industry winners across the board. CMS “did not follow through on its proposal to exclude certain protected drug classes, offering a win for the biopharma industry,” she said in a May 17 note. “Managed Care and PBMs also garnered a win as CMS did not follow through on the proposals to pass through pharmacy pricing concessions in the form of DIR [direct and indirect remuneration] fees to patients through reduced cost sharing.”

Dea Belazi, Pharm.D., president and CEO of AscellaHealth, offers a blunter assessment. “I think the final Part D rule is more rhetoric than anything,” he tells AIS Health.

As for negotiated price, “They’re not ready to do anything on pricing at this point,” Belazi says. “I think CMS, with HHS, opened up a Pandora’s box and realized this is not as easy as it seems and they need more time.”